Gemotions

David kicked at a loose stone on the sidewalk, the sound echoing the dull thud in his heart. The relentless summer heat did little to lift his mood. He’d gone to his childhood home, hunting for something, anything, to distract him.

He found it in his mother's closet – a stack of folders overflowing with his elementary school work. A bitter taste coated his tongue as he pulled out a hand-drawn Valentine’s card, the words "I love you" scrawled in a child's clumsy letters.

He felt a familiar hollowness grow within. Why did she need to save it all? A wave of self-pity crashed over him, a desolate feeling.